COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN THE SCHEMATIC DESIGN

To meet the needs of the neighborhood and engage the children of the neighborhood in the design, the Friends of Everhart Park (FOEP), in cooperation with the PTO and children of Hillsdale Elementary School, engaged the services of Play by Design, a playground design firm in Ithaca, NY, to lead a children’s design workshop at Hillsdale School, followed by an evening presentation to school children, parents, and the neighborhood. The resulting schematic design was well received by all. The students were thrilled to see the result of their special workshop.

In addition a 'Survey Monkey' questionnaire circulated by FOEP helped inform the Play By Design designer about the community's playground needs. The major request in the survey was to combine the two existing playground into one playground. The two playground locations make it difficult for a caregiver to watch children of different ages in each of the playgrounds at the same time.

This project will replace most of the existing, outdated playground equipment and consolidate the 2-5 year old child playground and the 5-12 year old child playground into a single playground located within and adjacent to the existing 5-12 year old playground. This will allow caregivers to easily monitor children of varying ages. All of the new equipment will provide opportunities for accessible, inclusive play. The beloved swings in the 5-12 yr. old play area will remain!

Ideas generated by students at Hillsdale Elementary school.

The main structure of the playground features an amazing 2-story treehouse with climbing structures, a rope climb, a fire pole, tunnels, bridges and a scavenger hunt to explore. The main treehouse will also have inclusive play elements such as a wheel chair accessible ramp to enter the treehouse and a transfer station for the racing slides. Speaking of slides, this structure is full of them! The design includes 6 slides including a swirly vortex slide, a bumpy slide, a fast slide, a turn slide, and 2 racing slides. If you look closely, you’ll see a Dragon guards the twin racing slides. Adjacent to the main tree house structure is a climbing forest that leads to a strength building obstacle course. This course includes monkey bars of several levels, with low monkey bars that are also wheelchair accessible, a challenge bridge, and hanging rings. This course was requested specifically by our children, who are fans of ninja warrior and wanted their own course in the park.

A few additional pieces of unique equipment will complete the playground. These include a wheelchair accessible Merry -Go-Round, a family swing, new inclusive swing seats, a rocking pirate ship, a see saw, and the extremely popular and most wished for zip line!